System and method for determining merchant location and availability using transaction data

ABSTRACT

A method for determining merchant availability is provided. The method includes storing in an electronic storage device a database of merchant transactions; accessing information in the database concerning the transactions, including time of the transactions and locations for merchants participating in the transactions, and assembling the information to provide locations where a merchant is currently available for conducting business. A computer readable non-transitory storage medium storing instructions of a computer program, which when executed by a computer system, results in performance of steps of the method.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

The present application is a continuation of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 13/538,305, entitled SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DETERMINING MERCHANTLOCATION AND AVAILABILITY USING TRANSACTION DATA and filed on Jun. 29,2012, the entirety of which is incorporated by reference hereby.

BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE 1. Field of the Disclosure

The present disclosure relates to payment card systems. Moreparticularly, it relates to methods for exploiting the informationgenerated by the transactions conducted on such systems.

2. Description of the Related Art

The first credit payment systems were two party systems in which amerchant sold goods to a customer without requiring full or any initialpayment, but where the customer paid for the goods at a later date, ormay have made periodic payments over a predetermined period of time.This method of payment is of limited scope and is not flexible, in thatit involves only one merchant, and the customer must make individualarrangements with each and every merchant, and for each and everytransaction.

In a three party system, a single card issuer contracts with customersand issues credit cards to them. The issuer also contracts withmerchants, who agree to make sales to a customer having a credit cardfrom the issuer. When a card is presented at a merchant's establishment,it is generally the issuer who approves the transaction and pays themerchant. However, this system, a so-called closed system, hasoccasionally been modified so that another party approves thetransaction and interacts with the merchant.

MasterCard, the assignee of the present application, operates withinwhat is known as a “four-party” payment card system. The four keyparticipants in a four-party system are: (i) the consumer and businesscardholders that use the cards; (ii) the merchants that accept thecards; (iii) the financial institutions that issue the cards (referredto as the card issuer); and (iv) the financial institutions that sign upmerchants to accept the cards (referred to as the acquirer). In atypical four-party payment card transaction, the merchant pays a“merchant discount fee” (i.e., a merchant service charge) to theacquirer in recognition of the services provided by the acquirer infacilitating payment card acceptance by the merchant. However, asubstantial portion of the benefits that the merchant receives throughcard acceptance comes from the value of the network and servicesperformed by the card issuer. For example, the card issuer underwritesand extends credit to the cardholder of a credit card, which enables thesale, and the card issuer assumes the risk of nonpayment by thecardholder, which enables the merchant to get paid for the transactioneven if card issuer does not. To compensate the card issuer forproviding such benefits to the acquirer's merchant customer, theacquirer pays an “interchange fee” to the card issuer in connection witha payment card transaction. The interchange fee helps to partiallyreimburse the card issuer for the many activities it performs and costsit incurs that enable the acquirer to provide significant benefits andvalue to its merchant customers. Interchange fees are only one of themany cost components of the merchant discount fees that are establishedby acquirers and paid by merchants in exchange for card acceptanceservices provided by acquirers to merchants.

In general, the transaction system and associated methods describedabove work. However there are situations in which additional conveniencefor the user would be desirable.

SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE

An embodiment of the invention is directed to a method (and a system)for determining merchant availability. The method can be used in a fourparty payment card processing system or in a three party payment cardprocessing system. The method includes storing in an electronic storagedevice a database of merchant transactions; accessing information in thedatabase concerning the transactions, including time of the transactionsand locations for merchants participating in the transactions, andassembling the information to provide locations where a merchant iscurrently available for conducting business. The database can containdata concerning transactions in a given geographic region.

The method can further include filtering the data to remove cardholderinformation related to the transactions. The accessing can compriseusing a web site for making the data stored in the database availablefor users of the web site.

The method further comprising using, in the Internet connected device,at least one of a GPS receiver and a location input screen, forproviding location of the Internet connected device. The Internetconnected device can be one of a mobile telephone, a computer, apersonal digital assistant and a tablet (including an i-Pad), or anydevice providing similar functions, that can be used to connect to theweb site. The method further comprises displaying information concerningmerchant establishments that are currently open for business on adisplay screen of the Internet connected device. The information can bedisplayed on the screen as a list of merchants currently open forbusiness, and their contact information, or as a real time mapindicating location of the merchant establishments that are currentlyopen for business, displayed as markers on the map.

The present disclosure provides, in an exemplary embodiment, that whendata in the database indicates that a merchant is no longer open forbusiness, a marker corresponding to the merchant is changed as a warningthat the merchant may no longer be open.

In another embodiment of the present disclosure, a computer readablenon-transitory storage medium for storing instructions of a computerprogram, which when executed by a computer system, results inperformance of steps of a method for determining merchant availability.The method includes storing in an electronic storage device a databaseof merchant transactions, accessing information in the databaseconcerning the transactions, including time of the transactions andlocation for merchants participating in the transactions, and assemblingthe information to provide locations where a merchant is currentlyavailable for conducting business.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a diagram of a four party payment card system.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a portion of a payment card system modifiedin accordance with one aspect of the present disclosure.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart representing the manner in which acquired data isfiltered to preserve confidentiality.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart illustrating the manner in which the system inaccordance with the present disclosure is used.

A component or a feature that is common to more than one drawing isindicated with the same reference number in each of the drawings.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PRESENT EMBODIMENT

One problem associated with the use of payment cards is that potentialcustomers interested in a particular product or service, often do notknow which merchants are nearby and are open for business. For example apotential customer may be driving at night in an unfamiliar location,and may need to know the location of the nearest gas station (or gasstations) that is currently open, and available to do business.

Reviewing authorization transaction data and merchant location dataresulting from transactions provides a powerful indicator that merchantsof a certain business type are currently open for business in a givenlocation. Furthermore, non-financial transactions can be used as asign-on and sign-off indicator of whether the merchant is open orclosed.

Referring to the drawings and, in particular, FIG. 1, there is shown afour party system 10. The cardholder 20 submits the payment card to themerchant 30. The merchant's point of sale device (80 in FIG. 2)communicates 32 with his acquiring bank or acquirer 40, which acts as apayment processor. The acquirer 40, at 42, initiates the transaction onthe payment card network 50. The payment card network 50 routes thetransaction to the issuing bank or card issuer 60, which is identifiedusing information in the transaction message, more fully describedbelow. The card issuer 60 approves or denies an authorization request.At 62, the card issuer 60, then routes, via the payment card network 50an authorization response back to the acquirer 40. The acquirer 40 sendsapproval to the POS device of the merchant 30. Seconds later thecardholder completes the purchase and receives a receipt.

The account of the merchant 40 is credited at 70 by the acquirer 40. Thecard issuer 60 pays the acquirer at 72. Eventually, at 74, thecardholder 20 pays the card issuer 60.

Referring to FIG. 2, each merchant has on their premises at least onecard swiping machine or point of sale device 80, of a type well known inthe art, for initiating customer transactions. These point of saledevices 80A, 80B, . . . 80N, generally also have keyboard data entrypads for entering data when a card's magnetic coding becomes difficultto read, or for the purpose of entering card data resulting fromtelephone calls during which the customer provides card data bytelephone. Point of sale devices 80A, 80B, . . . 80N are connected by asuitable network to a transaction concentrator 90, for a givengeographic area, which concentrates the transaction information. Eachconcentrator 90 has associated with it a transaction database 100 thatstores information concerning the transaction. Information from theconcentrator 90 is routed to a respective acquiring bank 110 that, inturn, routes the information so that transactions are properly completedusing the system illustrated in FIG. 1.

While it is advantageous to maintain a local database includingtransactions in a given geographic area, there is no such limitation onvarious embodiments of the present disclosure. For example, if thepresent disclosure is used with a three party system, data for arelatively large geographic region may be stored in a single database ata central location. The time to search this more extensive database, andprovide a response to a user, may be slightly greater, but the user willobtain the same useful information.

Information that is exchanged across the network for each credit ordebit card financial transaction message includes the followingcharacteristics: acquirer identifier/card accepter identifier (thecombination of which uniquely defines the merchant); merchant address(i.e., full address and or GPS data); merchant category code (also knownas card acceptor business code), that is an indication of the type ofbusiness the merchant is involved in (for example, a gas station); localtransaction date and time, cardholder base currency (i.e., U.S. Dollars,Euro, Yen, etc.), the transaction environment or method being used toconduct the transaction (as more fully explained below), productspecific data such as SKU line item data, and cost of the transaction.

While merchant address information in the transaction may be incomplete,it can be combined with a database of merchant identifications andprecise merchant location information, such as the full address and/orGPS coordinate data for the location of the merchant. When transactioninformation is aggregated from all merchants and combined with theprecise merchant locations, it can be used to answer the question: Whereare the merchant locations of a certain business type that are currentlyopen for business? The information can be graphically displayed, as morefully described below.

Transaction records stored in transaction database 100 containinformation that is highly confidential and must be maintained as suchto prevent fraud and identity theft. The data of the database may bestored in any type of memory, including a hard drive, a flash memory, ona CD, in a RAM, or any other suitable memory.

The transaction records stored in transaction database 100 are sentthrough a filter 120 (FIG. 3) which removes confidential information,but retains records concerning merchant identification and theoccurrence of transactions at various times. The information ispreferably available in substantially real time. The filtered data isstored in a filtered transaction database 130 which may be accessed, asdescribed below.

A mobile telephone 140 having a display 145 may have a series ofapplications or applets thereon including an applet or applicationprogram (hereinafter an application) 150 for use with the present methodand system described herein. Mobile telephone 140 may also be equippedwith a GPS receiver 160 so that its position is always known.Alternatively, if no GPS receiver is provided, application 150 may haveprovisions for entering the current location of the mobile phone, suchas, for example, the name of the town, and the streets forming anintersection where the mobile telephone 140 is located.

Mobile telephone 140 may be used to access a website 170 on theInternet, via an Internet connected Wi-Fi hot spot 190 (or by anytelephone network, such as a 3G or 4G system, on which mobile telephone140 communicates), by using application 150. Website 170 is linked todatabase 130 so that authorized users of website 170 may have access tothe data contained therein. The manner in which that access isexploited, in accordance with the present disclosure, is described withrespect to FIG. 4.

Web site 170 has a processor 180 for assembling data from filteredtransaction database 130 for responding to user inquiries, as more fullydiscussed below with respect to FIG. 4. A memory 185 associated with website 170, having a non-transitory computer readable medium, storescomputer readable instructions for use by processor 180 in implementingthe operation of the disclosed embodiment.

While the present disclosure is preferably used with a mobile device,because, in general, it may advantageously serve individuals who areaway from a home or business location, web site 170 may be accessed froma home or business computer, including a desk top, lap top or notebookcomputer, from a personal digital assistant, or any other Internetconnected device, such as a tablet (for example, a device such as aniPad®). As an example, after working late at the office on a Fridaynight, an individual may use the present method and system with adesktop office computer, to locate a number of bars that are still open,with the intent of going to one of the bars to have one or more drinks,and to socialize with other patrons who may be there.

Referring to FIG. 3, the operation of filter 120 (FIG. 2) isillustrated. The raw transaction data usually exchanged over the networkis acquired at 200. At 210, customer sensitive information such as thecredit card number and expiration date and other customer sensitiveinformation is removed. At 220, the remaining data is stored in database130 (FIG. 2). At 230, after a relatively short time, data which is nolonger current or has become “old” in the context of the presentembodiment, can be removed from the database. This serves to conservespace in the memory associated with database 130, and is permissiblebecause, in general, transaction data which is more than, for example,several minutes, or in some cases, several hours old will not be helpfulin indicating whether a particular merchant is open for business.

As discussed below, it is also possible to configure the filter so thatdata associated with off-hour transactions (those that are processed athours when the merchant is not otherwise open for business) are notpassed from transaction database 100 to filtered transaction database130.

FIG. 4 illustrates the manner in which the present method or system isused by a customer. At 300, the user activates application 150 on mobiletelephone 140 (FIG. 2). Assuming that Internet access is available, at310, optionally, the user will be directed to a log-in page of website170 (FIG. 2). At 320, the user logs in with a user identification andpassword in a conventional manner, well known in the art. At 330, accessis granted to the information in database 130.

The manner in which the owner of web site 170 exploits the presentmethod and system can vary. The web site may be available free to thepublic. Alternatively, a user fee may be charged, on a time of use, orperiodic basis (such as monthly). Web site 170 may be made availableonly to card-holders of the type of card being used to make thosetransactions, or only for free to such cardholders. There are otherpossibilities for providing access to the web site.

At 340, information which is relevant to the location specified by thecoordinates obtained from the GPS receiver 160 in mobile telephone 140or the entered location information, a predefined default location, orsome other method of determining location, whether now know or laterdeveloped, is sent from the mobile telephone 140 to the web site 170. At350, using mobile telephone 140, the user then enters the type oftransaction desired. For example, the user may wish to find an eatingestablishment, a merchant of a particular kind of goods, or anautomobile service station. Optionally, at 360 the user may enter themaximum distance that the user desires to travel to arrive at a placewhere the type of transaction entered at 350 can be conducted. If theuser skips this step, a default distance of, for example 3 miles (4.8kilometers), may be used.

For certain selected items, at 370, the user can enter into mobiletelephone 140, using application 150, the maximum price that the userwill pay for certain goods or services. At 380, the user will receivethe results of a search in database 130 specific to the selectedgeographic area, for the type of transaction desired, and if price is acriteria, at the specified price, or lower. This may be in the form of alist of establishments for conducting the desired transaction, theiraddresses and their telephone numbers, shown on display 145 of mobiletelephone 140. Alternatively, a map may be generated with, for example,green dots indicating the location of merchants engaging in the type oftransaction desired. Application 150 may be configured so that if one ofthese locations on a map is selected by, for example, using a cursor,the exact name and address for that business establishment is provided.Database 130 may be continuously accessed, and the data updated, at 400,so that if no transactions take place at a given merchant location for aspecific period of time, the indicators that are green will change colorto red, thus providing the user with a warning that the merchant mayhave closed, and the desired transaction cannot be completed at thatlocation.

EXAMPLE

A user is in downtown Poughkeepsie, New York at 1 AM looking for a baropen for business. Database 130 shows that there are two merchants indowntown Poughkeepsie of merchant category code bar/restaurant whichhave authorized transactions in the past five minutes. Application 150of mobile telephone 140 displays a map with the location of the mobiletelephone 140 and the locations of the two nearby bars.

There are other ways in which the system may be made aware of the statusof a particular merchant. For example, the system can be configured sothat a non-transactional message, such as an account status queryservice message, or a cardholder balance inquiry, is sent once or twicewithin a short period of time, such as, for example, within a minute,from the merchant point-of-sale device to indicate that the merchant isopening or closing. Alternatively, or in addition, the point of saledevice can be configured to be sensitive to a biological indicator, suchas for example, the heartbeat or thumbprint, of the user or users of thepoint of sale device.

An additional approach can use historical data to determine whether themerchant is open or closed. Earliest and latest authorization data, forprevious days or weeks, for that precise location or merchant, may bestored for later access. This may be useful for merchants havinglow-volume high-priced items where a relatively small number of salesare made in any given period of time.

It will be understood that there are merchants who have conventionalbrick and mortar stores, but who also accept Internet sales on a twentyfour hour a day, seven day a week basis, generally via their own websites. Merchants may also accept payment card orders by telephone, andmay do so at times outside of normal business hours. However, as notedabove, a credit or debit card financial transaction message includesdata elements that identify the transaction environment or method as,for example, point of sale (POS), with the cardholder in person, mailorder or telephone order (MOTO), or e-commerce(ECOM), i.e. online. Forpurposes of the embodiments described herein, interest is primarily inPOS transactions, as the best indicators of when the merchant is open,and available to do business.

It will be understood that while the present disclosure has beendescribed primarily with respect to the four party credit card system,it can also be applied, as noted above, to a three party credit cardsystem. Further, with suitable modifications, as will be understood byone skilled in the art, it can be applied to other kinds of payment cardsystems, such as debit card charging systems.

While most of the discussion above applies to credit card transactions,generally the same networks that are used to process credit cardtransactions also can be used to process debit cards and prepaid orpreloaded payment cards. Point of sale devices such as those of FIG. 1,as well as gasoline pumps, and other places where a product may be sold,are equipped with input devices, such as push buttons or touch sensitiveregions, which are used to indicate whether a payment card is a creditcard or a debit card, or in some cases, some other type of payment card.While the legal rules for these different types of payments vary, theyare processed in very similar ways at the point of sale.

One significant way in which debit cards depart from credit cards is theprocessing required to settle a transaction. While transactionconcentrators can be used, the acquiring bank receives payment directlyfrom the account of a cardholder, usually at another bank. Generally allof the funds required for the transaction must be on deposit in theaccount tied to the debit card, before the transaction will be approved.However, some banks have permitted transactions to be conductedinvolving more funds than are on deposit.

Settlement is similar for prepaid or preloaded cards. An account isestablished at a financial institution containing a predetermined amountof funds. When the card is presented for payment, funds are withdrawnfrom the account in an amount sufficient to cover the transaction.Purchases wherein an attempt is made to use more money than is in theaccount will not be approved.

In all of these cases, the record of transaction contains virtually thesame information as discussed above. Thus, the operation of thedisclosed embodiment may be essentially identical to what is disclosedwith respect to FIG. 2.

It will be understood that the present disclosure may be embodied in acomputer readable non-transitory storage medium, storing instructions ofa computer program which when executed by a computer system results inperformance of steps of the method described herein. Such storage mediamay include any of those mentioned in the description above.

The techniques described herein are exemplary, and should not beconstrued as implying any particular limitation on the presentdisclosure. It should be understood that various alternatives,combinations and modifications could be devised by those skilled in theart. For example, steps associated with the processes described hereincan be performed in any order, unless otherwise specified or dictated bythe steps themselves. The present disclosure is intended to embrace allsuch alternatives, modifications and variances that fall within thescope of the appended claims.

The terms “comprises” or “comprising” are to be interpreted asspecifying the presence of the stated features, integers, steps orcomponents, but not precluding the presence of one or more otherfeatures, integers, steps or components or groups thereof.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system for determining merchant availability,comprising: an electronic storage device having a transaction database,wherein the electronic storage device receives and stores, in thetransaction database: (a) merchant data of a merchant conducting thecredit, debit, or payment card transaction and (b) raw transaction datafor a credit, debit, or payment card transaction, wherein the rawtransaction data includes (i) time and date data, (ii) price data, and(iii) credit, debit, or payment card transaction data includingpersonally identifying confidential information of credit, debit, orpayment card users, and the merchant data includes (i) geographicallocation data of the merchant; and a filtered transaction databasecomprising filtered transaction data; an Internet accessible websiteaccess interface configured to provide website access to the filteredtransaction database; and a processor communicatively coupled to theelectronic storage device, wherein the processor is configured to:filter the raw transaction data to remove personally identifyingconfidential information of credit, debit, or payment card users, thusyielding the filtered transaction data, store the filtered transactiondata in the filtered transaction database, determine that at least onemerchant is open for business from the filtered data and the merchantdata within a time of a request received via the website accessinterface from an internet connected device of a person, wherein therequest includes the time of the request and a location of the person,and provide the internet connected device of the person with anindicator of one or more locations of the at least one merchant that ispresently open for business that meets the request.
 2. The system ofclaim 1, wherein the transaction database has data concerningtransactions in a given geographic region.
 3. The system of claim 1,wherein when system is configured to provide the person with a closedindicator indicating that the at least one merchant is no longer openfor business.
 4. The system of claim 3, wherein the indicator comprisesa marker corresponding to the merchant, wherein then the merchant is nolonger open, the marker is changed to the closed indicator.
 5. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein the request further comprises a maximumdistance from the location of the person parameter.
 6. A method fordetermining merchant availability comprising: receiving, from a point ofsale device that is part of a three-party or a four-party payment cardtransaction processing system, raw transaction data for an authorizedcredit, debit, or payment card transaction of a merchant; storing, in atransaction database on an electronic storage device, (a) the rawtransaction data, wherein the database further comprises (b) merchantdata of the merchant, wherein the raw transaction data includes (i) timeand date data, (ii) price data, and (iii) credit, debit, or payment cardtransaction data including personally identifying confidentialinformation of credit, debit, or payment card users, and the merchantdata including (i) geographical location data of the merchant;filtering, with a processor, the raw transaction data to removepersonally identifying information of credit, debit, or payment cardusers, thus yielding filtered data; storing the filtered transactiondata in a filtered transaction database; receiving a request from a userdevice of a person via an Internet accessible website access interfaceconfigured to provide website access to the filtered transactiondatabase, wherein the request is for a merchant that is open forbusiness and includes a time of the request and a present location ofthe person; determine that at least one merchant is open for businessfrom the filtered transaction data and the merchant data based on therequest; provide the person with an indicator of one or more locationsof merchants that are presently open for business that meet the request;and making the indicator available to the user device via the websiteaccess interface.
 7. The method of claim 6, wherein the database hasinformation concerning transactions in a given geographic region.
 8. Themethod of claim 7, further comprising displaying merchants that arecurrently open for business on a display screen of the user device. 9.The method of claim 8, wherein the indication is displayed on thedisplay screen as a real time map indicating a location the merchantthat is currently open for business.
 10. The method of claim 9, whereinthe merchant currently open for business is displayed on the real timemap as marker.
 11. The method of claim 10, wherein the indicatorindicates that the merchant is no longer open for business when themarker corresponding to the merchant is changed to show that themerchant is no longer open.
 12. The method of claim 6, wherein therequest further comprises a maximum distance from the location of theperson parameter.
 13. The method of claim 6, further comprising:determining the at least one merchant is open for business within apredetermined period of time of the time of receiving the request.
 14. Acomputer readable non-transitory storage medium storing program which,when executed by a computer system, results in performance of a methodfor determining merchant availability comprising: receiving, from apoint of sale device that is part of a three-party or a four-partypayment card transaction system, raw transaction data for an authorizedcredit, debit, or payment card transaction of a merchant; storing, in atransaction database on an electronic storage device, (a) the rawtransaction data, wherein the database comprises (b) merchant data ofthe merchant, the raw transaction data including (i) time and date data,(ii) price data, and (iii) credit, debit, or payment card transactiondata including personally identifying confidential information ofcredit, debit, or payment card users, and the merchant data including(i) geographical location data of the merchant; filtering, with aprocessor, the raw transaction data to remove personally identifyinginformation of credit, debit, or payment card users and to removenon-current transaction data, including after hour transaction data,thus yielding filtered transaction data; receiving a request from a userdevice of a person via an Internet accessible website access interfaceconfigured to provide website access to the filtered transactiondatabase, the request being for an indication of a merchant that is openfor business and including a time of the request and a present locationof the person; storing the filtered transaction data in a filteredtransaction database; determining that at least one merchant is open forbusiness from the filtered transaction data and the merchant data basedon the request; providing the person with an indicator of one or morelocations of merchants that are presently open for business that meetthe request; and making the indicator available to the user device viathe website access interface.
 15. The program of claim 14, whereinprogram is configured to, when executed, perform the method furthercomprising: determining the at least one merchant is open for businesswithin a predetermined period of time of the time of receiving therequest.
 16. The program of claim 14, wherein program is configured to,when executed, perform the method further comprising: displayingmerchants that are currently open for business on a display screen ofthe user device.
 17. The program of claim 16, wherein program isconfigured to, when executed, perform the method further comprising:displaying the indication on the display screen as a real time mapindicating a location the merchant that is currently open for business.18. The program of claim 17, wherein the merchant currently open forbusiness is displayed on the real time map as marker.
 19. The program ofclaim 18, wherein the indicator indicates that the merchant is no longeropen for business when the marker corresponding to the merchant ischanged to show that the merchant is no longer open.
 20. The program ofclaim 14, wherein the request further comprises a maximum distance fromthe location of the person parameter.